Rumblings xtra: Items that didn't make print edition

Remember when Drew Gooden was a starting power forward for the Cavaliers? Hard as it seems to believe, that was six years and seven teams ago.

He’s in Washington now hoping for a second 10-day contract, which sources told the Washington Post that he is likely to receive from the Wizards on Saturday. If he gets it, he will be available to play Saturday night against his last team, the Milwaukee Bucks.

The Bucks cut him using the amnesty provision last July. No teams gave him a serious offer until last week, when the Wizards signed him to a 10-day contract. The 32-year-old former Kansas star didn’t score until third appearance in four games with the team.

Jarmo Kekalainen knows the bottom line from Marian Gaborik’s trade to the Los Angeles Kings doesn’t look good, after the Blue Jackets general manager sent Derick Brassard, Derek Dorsett and John Moore to the New York Rangers for him last year at trade deadline. In the end, getting Matt Frattin, a second round pick and a conditional third round pick for that trio looks pretty bad, even though Gaborik’s injuries were part of the equation that no one could anticipate.

To his credit, Kekalainen shouldered the blame and didn’t make a bad decision trying to cover for the first one. The Jackets had one GM who would have hung onto Gaborik as long as he could and maybe even re-signed him, hoping to somehow prove his original decision was correct. The team had another GM who might have acquired other players to help justify the original trade and make Gaborik look like a better fit.

Kekalainen did neither. Once he saw Gaborik didn’t fit and wouldn’t be re-signed, he decided to trade him for the best offer he could get.

“We all want things to work and you make mistakes,” he said. “If you want to call it my mistake, it’s not my first and it’s not going to be my last. That’s just the way it goes in this business. My longest experience in this business has obviously been with the draft and it’s funny how things work. You get criticized and you get criticized and then it turns around the other way and all of a sudden they praise you about a player. I’ve had that many times when I have been ripped to shreds about some player and then three years later they’re saying ‘Oh, you’re a genius.’

“Anything can happen with a trade. (Gaborik) can go to LA and be the missing piece for them and take them to the Stanley Cup, who knows? When you’re predicting the future behavior of human beings, if you guys have some kind of a crystal ball, I’d like to borrow it. It’s a tough science.”

It’s become more and more clear that Indians ace Justin Masterson would like to sign a long-term deal with Cleveland, even though the two sides haven’t been able to agree on anything to this point. Homer Bailey’s six-year, $105 million agreement with the Reds was thought to be a deal-breaker – the two pitchers are comparable in just about every way and the Tribe made it clear they wouldn’t match it – but Masterson confirmed that he and agent Randy Rowley made a three- to four-year proposal last weekend to try to circumvent those problems.

While team officials still haven’t countered that, Masterson has continued to hint that he would like to stay with the Tribe beyond this season. When he was asked Wednesday if he feels comfortable in Cleveland, he made it clear that the hiring of Terry Francona as manager last season had a big part in that. Francona was his manager in Boston before he was traded to the Indians.

“Last year when they brought in Tito (Francona) it brought some great things,” he said. “I was always happy with the great clubhouse guys here, one of the best traveling secretaries (Mike Seghi) and a great training staff. Then you bring in Tito and you go ‘ooh!’ I said, ‘it does feel like home.’”

The Indians and Masterson avoided arbitration on Feb. 18 when he signed a one-year deal for $9,726,500. As much as he likes Cleveland, he isn’t likely accept a low ball offer just to stay there.

“It’s a challenging situation, especially for me,” said Masterson. “We’re not necessarily doing this because we need to get the most money. We also want it to be fair and think of others who may come behind us.”